UK ambassador to UN: Europe united in pushing back on Russia

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," November 9, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, ANCHOR: Protesters clashing outside, as Broward County officials count the ballots inside. And now this fight over recount is heading to court.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto.

And you thought the election was over, right? Not so fast. A state court in Southern Florida now ground zero in a lawsuit filed against Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, the lawsuit filed by the Republican governor and Senate candidate Rick Scott demanding Snipes turn over key election documents in the Florida Senate race, where razor-thin -- and we mean really super razor-thin margin -- now separates the governor and the incumbent Democratic senator, Bill Nelson.

Phil Keating in Miami with the latest on this back and forth.

Hey, Phil.

PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Neil.

No election in Florida comes easy, oftentimes not flawless. And election lawsuits no stranger either. Just right now up in Fort Lauderdale, a hearing apparently has wrapped up or soon will. This was an emergency hearing to deal with the Governor Rick Scott's lawsuit he filed last night alleging rampant fraud and incompetence inside the Broward County elections departments over the way they have been handling these provisional and mail-in ballots in the days after the election.

The canvassing board met at about 1:00 this afternoon in Broward County as well, as well as in other counties around the state. That's the way it works. Canvassing boards at the elections office go over the provisional ballots and the mail-in ballots in the days right after election Tuesday just to compare signatures, rule some in, rule some out, and discard votes or add votes to the running unofficial total.

Not the case outside of that Broward elections department today. Quite raucous, as more than 100 people protested, Republicans and Democrats each accusing the other of trying to steal the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENDA SNIPES, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA, SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS: We ran 22 sites. We ran 14 days. We ran 12 hours. We had a big vote by mail.

So don't try to turn it around to make it seem like I'm making comedy out of this.

But it would also be naive to not realize that they could be trying to overrule the will of the voters of Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEATING: In Florida's hotly contested and super tight U.S. Senate race between Republican Rick Scott, the governor, and Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, shows a difference now a 15,000 votes. That is point 0.8 of 1 percent, destined for a recount.

The latest numbers in the governor's ratio Republican Ron DeSantis' election night lead now down to 36,000 votes over Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. That is point 0.44 percent, also in recount territory.

While state law dictates any election in Florida where the margin of victory is under half-a-percent automatically gets machine-recounted, it does take the secretary of state to order it. He is expected to do that early tomorrow afternoon up in Tallahassee -- Neil.

CAVUTO: So it would be a machine recount?

KEATING: First, a machine recount.

CAVUTO: Yes.

KEATING: And every county has got five days to get those results in. And if it's under 25 -- 0.25 percent at that point, hand recount.

CAVUTO: Amazing. Wow.

I think you will be covering this for a while.

(CROSSTALK)

KEATING: And the Nelson race, the Senate race could be.

CAVUTO: Yes. It could..

KEATING: Yes, the Senate race right -- well, the Senate race right now is so close, it would qualify for a hand recount.

So this could go definitely at least 10 more days.

CAVUTO: All right, Phil, thank you very much.

Phil will be joining us for our live version of "Cavuto Live" tomorrow on the fallout from all of this, as they're going through what presumably could be a long and extended recount through this.

Now to the potential fallout. We have got attorney Gayle Trotter joining us.

Gayle, the process could take how long? Let's say you do a machine recount. You do it across the state then, right, I mean, every single county and jurisdiction, right?

GAYLE TROTTER, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM: That's right. And it could take weeks.

We saw this happen in 2000 with the presidential election, and it goes on, and there's not certitude on this, particularly when you see that the process itself is being flouted and the rules are being ignored.

So, as we go forward, if they continue to ignore the very specific rules that are designed to promote voter integrity and to make sure that the casts are -- the votes are cast and tabulated in a fair process, where both candidates can understand the process and have updates, then you can see that this will be dragged out.

We have already had lawsuits filed. And as soon as the courts get involved in this as well, it definitely also has the possibility of extending things further than they should be extended.

CAVUTO: You know, Gayle, I remember with the Gore-Bush, Bush-Gore recount, I mean, there was criticism about certain counties getting recounts and others not and that, in retrospect, the Gore folks might have erred by focusing on only what they thought were their -- their strong counties, the Palm Beach, et cetera, Broward.

Wouldn't you know those are the same counties in question here. They are disproportionately Democrat, but the Scott folks are saying, we don't know the universe we're looking at here, right? We don't know how many ballads, period...

TROTTER: Right.

CAVUTO: ... right or left, we're talking about, right?

TROTTER: Right. And every American should be concerned about that, because if you don't know how many ballots they are going through and tabulating, then you can add ballots.

And we have seen through the history of elections in this county, the recent history, there have been a lot of problems. There have been a lot of lawsuits. There have been sanctions against Broward County for irregularities, for violating the law.

And we saw news reports this week that there was an entire lockbox filled with -- it said possibly with provisional ballots, and the highest importance of a board of supervisors or election -- elections, to make sure that they are able to conduct elections in a fair manner, well, certainly, this is not the case in this situation.

And Rick Scott is rightfully challenging this in court to make sure that the votes of all Floridians are respected, because, if this process is not in accordance with law, then you're disenfranchising eligible voters.

CAVUTO: Now, if there's a statewide recount, Republican counties, Democratic counties, the Panhandle, everywhere, Republican, counting all military ballots, all absentee ballots, is it your understanding that that would satisfy the governor, satisfy Democrats as well, that it is going to be a full recount, it's going to be a full recount of everything from everywhere?

TROTTER: Well, and think of how expensive that is. That is really putting public expenditures.

CAVUTO: But isn't that automatic? I was under the impression it was when it got under half-a-percent.

TROTTER: Right.

But it shouldn't have been. Rick Scott was ahead by 55,000 votes on Tuesday. And as we continue to have these votes come in that were not -- the Florida law required that the total number of votes be released by 30 minutes after the day of the election when the polls were closed.

So that wouldn't have been the case. But now we see that it is the case.

CAVUTO: So, don't know the -- we don't know the total number of votes. That's part of his beef, right?

TROTTER: Correct. Correct.

CAVUTO: OK. Understood. Understood.

All right. Gayle, thank you very, very much, Gayle Trotter.

All right, we will still stay on top of his and recounts going on in a number of other states for what will be sort of a fresh count going on, in particularly states where it was very close to begin with. Arizona, Georgia comes to mind.

More on that in a second.

The big development today, not just this sell-off, but the percipient for it, the idea that energy prices are collapsing, oil is collapsing. Now, the flip side of that means that if oil is at a bear market, down 20 percent or more from highs, that means you will soon be paying less at the pump. You will soon be paying less for home heating oil this winter.

And that frees up more of your dough for other things, like Christmas shopping presents, that sort of thing.

FBN's Ashley Webster on the implications of that -- Ashley.

ASHLEY WEBSTER, FOX NEWS BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey, Neil.

The market is a very skittish place these days. And we have a number of factors weighing not only on the market, but on the psyche of the investors. And, as you mentioned, one is a dramatic fall in oil prices.

The price of crude has fallen for 10 consecutive sessions. It hasn't done that since 1984, by my calculation, 34 years. In fact, since setting highs last month, oil prices have fallen 20 percent, as you say, meaning it is now in bear territory.

Now, the U.S. is pumping more oil these days. But it does raise concerns that the global economy is struggling and therefore demand for crude is falling. That is a negative for stocks.

Now, we also learned today that wholesale prices in the U.S. jumped by the most in six years last month, led by higher prices for gas, although they are falling, also, though, higher prices for food and chemicals.

The hotter-than-expected reading leads to questions about the Fed. Now, we know the Fed will likely raise rates again next month, and possibly three times next year. But when higher producer prices are out there, that creates worries about inflation and perhaps even more Fed intervention.

Now, on top of all of this, there's great concerned about the health of the Chinese economy, the second biggest in the world. For instance, the latest data suggests auto sales in China sell some 12 percent in October. That's compared to a year ago.

And now the China government is actually taking steps to boost bank lending to the private sector -- all of this, of course, an offshoot of the trade war it's having with the United States.

So you put all of this together, there are reasons that investors are cautious. And don't forget, of course, we had the big post-midterm election rally earlier this week. Everyone was cheering. A gridlocked Congress. Lawmakers can't hurt us.

But guess what, Neil? The euphoria, for all those reasons mentioned, is already wearing off.

CAVUTO: All right, we're going to be up on those developments and the implications they have. That's tomorrow live, when we are going to be here from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. following these developments.

We're also going to be attention -- paying attention to what's happening as we speak right now. The president will soon be landing on Air Force One in Paris, of course, looking back 100 years at World War I, the war that was supposed to end all wars.

We know, in retrospect, it didn't, but a very solemn weekend planned for the president of the United States.

We will have much more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CAVUTO: All right, we are told President Trump and first lady Melania Trump have landed in Paris to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the war to end all wars.

The president will be meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, tomorrow, ahead of that.

John Roberts in Paris with the very latest, what's on tap

Hey, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good afternoon to you, Neil, or good evening from Paris, where it's just about a little after 10:00, and the president just touched down at the airport a short time ago and will be making his way to Paris.

He's here for the commemorate -- commemoration, rather, of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended, as you said, the war to end all wars, but, really, in many ways just set the stage for World War II; 117,000 Americans perished in World War I fighting here in Europe out of the 5.7 million allies who died.

And the president will be paying his respects to those who fought and died under the American flag and other flags as well when he participates in ceremonies at two American cemeteries, one just outside of Paris, but halfway between here and Reims northeast of the city, the Aisne-Marne Cemetery.

And then one that's in the Northeast part of Paris called Suresnes, which is on a hill that overlooks downtown Paris, really is a beautiful, beautiful location.

As he was departing the White House this morning, the president said he's really looking forward to the weekend. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It should be a very beautiful period of time -- the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I.

We have many countries. The leadership of many countries will be there, especially since they heard the United States will be there. And we look forward to that. It'll be a great, really, commemorative service. I think it's going to be something very special.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Yes, there will dozens of leaders here, including Vladimir Putin.

Last month, you will remember, Neil, the president said it's likely that he would meet Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the commemoration this weekend. The national security adviser, John Bolton, said the same thing, seemed to be even more definitive of it happening.

And then all of a sudden, they said, well, there's not enough time to do it during this weekend. So they postponed it. The president will likely now meet with Vladimir Putin in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G20.

He will be meeting with President Macron of France, who his popularity has been waning a lot, Neil, his popularity rating only 29 percent now. And to that end, he's actually lashing out against some factions of the European Union, in an interview on a radio talk show saying -- quote -- "Without a doubt, Europe has become too ultra-liberal. We need a stronger Europe that protects. We must have a Europe that can defend itself on its own, without relying on the United States."

And the president about to disembark there from Air Force One -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, John, thank you very, very much.

The read on all these developments, including a number at the United Nations this week.

Karen Pierce, the U.K. ambassador to the United Nations, if you have not heard this woman in action, I urge you to record it and collect them. She is just a sight to behold on the floor of the United Nations.

Ambassador, good to have you.

KAREN PIERCE, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Thank you very much, Neil. Nice to be here.

CAVUTO: These are very commemorative, serious, almost austere events, recognizing the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, but they bring all the powers together, and then to try to maybe think about the risks you take going too far.

How do you think this weekend goes for this president, for all the major European leaders? How do you think it goes?

I think, first and foremost, they're an opportunity to say thank you. Thank you to all those soldiers from all our countries who've served and gave their lives.

It's an opportunity for Europe to say things thank you to the United States for sending its soldiers to help. And it's an opportunity for reconciliation, above all with Germany, as the enemy that most people think of. But now look where we are in relations with Germany.

And I think that's a really important reconciliation lesson for all those other countries involved in conflict around the world, to look and see how, transatlantically, we have managed to put that relationship back together.

CAVUTO: You think about Germany, of course, ending a war in the beginning, a hundred years ago, and going back right into war a little more than 20 years later.

I'm wondering your sense of lessons global leaders learn from experiences like that, or whether -- what's that old line, Ambassador? History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

What do you make of that?

PIERCE: Or repeats itself once as farce, once as tragedy. And I think that's also worth thinking about.

I think the biggest lesson on that from the First World War was that, although it was understandable countries wanted to punish Germany for what she had done, as you say, the sorts of harsh punishments they meted out economically produced the crisis in Germany that ultimately had its culmination in Hitler and the Second World War.

And I think that recognition has guided a lot of the way Europe has ran its affairs ever since, always been magnanimous in victory was what Churchill said. And I think that's a good lesson that has stood the test of time.

CAVUTO: You and I were talking during the break about the changes going on in Europe now.

Angela Merkel, the longest serving Western leader, who will eventually be going, I guess we just don't know when, right? There's already a battle going on to replace her within her party.

PIERCE: That's right.

CAVUTO: But she has been, as you touched on with me a number of times, very tough in the face of Vladimir Putin, saying that, we can't let our guard down, et cetera, but, by the same token, scoring large business deals, natural gas deals, with the Russians.

And that, this president, our president, Trump, has said sends mixed messages. What do you make of the back and forth on that?

PIERCE: I think there's always a danger when economic interests loom so large in a contest, if you like, in Europe between the E.U. and Russia, that, sometimes, an individual set of national interests are going to win out over the collective need to stand firm against Russia.

But, on the security side, all of Europe has been very united in pushing back on Russia. They were very supportive, as was the president, when the U.K. two measures to expel Russian diplomats because of the poisonings of the Skripals in Salisbury.

And they have been very united in bringing sanctions in against Russia and united in helping Estonia protect itself from potential Russian aggression.

So, on the security side, we have a very firm set of principles, very firm set of cooperation. But I think, always on the economic side, yes, sometimes, national interest creep out in front. And we need to guard against that, because it's only by being united and determined that Russia is really going to be deterred.

CAVUTO: We're still facing trade frictions. Some of the trade impasses have been resolved with some countries and the United States, not so much with China and the United States.

Obviously, your country, a lot of other European partners are worried that this escalates and gets into a full global trade war that does nobody any good -- as the president now descends Air Force One.

He says: Trust me, we will solve this, and this -- we will all be the better for it.

Do you believe that?

PIERCE: Well, I had the pleasure during the recent U.N. ministerial week of talking to the president about trade. And he clearly knows a lot about it.

He has a lot of the figures in his head. He doesn't like cheats in the international system. And I think we agree with him on that. But, in Britain, we like to think of ourselves as archetypal free traders.

It's always been important to Britain. It was back in the 19th century. It still is in the 21st century. So we like to fight back against protectionism. We hope that the G20 meeting you were mentioning that the president will go to...

CAVUTO: Right.

PIERCE: ... we will hope they will be able to take some more steps against protectionism.

It's not to say we don't agree that organizations like the World Trade Organization don't need reforming to reflect the modern economy, but we really want to raise that standard for free trade. It matters to us all.

CAVUTO: Ambassador, as we're watching the president here arriving in Paris, things have changed in a little less than two years he's been president.

He wasn't a popular figure in Europe when he came in. He remains a globally divisive figure, but he is certainly more popular than a lot of his European counterparts now, including on Emmanuel Macron, whose approval rating is now in the -- in the mid-20s.

And I'm wondering what you make of that and what Europe now makes of this president who has one of the most successful economies on earth and firing on all proverbial cylinders? Do they credit him? Do they look at the midterm elections we had, kind of split read on American power and who has it? What?

PIERCE: I think it's fair to say that Europe doesn't always understand America as well as it might.

(LAUGHTER)

PIERCE: The converse might also be true. But, because we face...

CAVUTO: You should see what we say about Britain.

(LAUGHTER)

PIERCE: Well, we think of ourselves as a special friend of America.

And we definitely think of America as a special friend to Britain, not just because of the World Wars, but because of all the security cooperation we have had since.

The American economy, soft power, competitiveness, it's a very important beacon in the world. We would like to see...

CAVUTO: But there's still a little friction, right?

And, Ambassador, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but we're getting a tweet from the president.

I don't see you tweeting too much, by the way.

But I thought maybe that...

PIERCE: I tweet a bit.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: All right.

PIERCE: Not as much as the president, not as much as him.

CAVUTO: The reason why I mention it, Ambassador, is the president apparently angry at President Macron of France, saying and has suggested -- talking about him -- that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia.

"Very insulting." This is coming into president. "But perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly."

So they're not going to be off to a great start, it would seem.

PIERCE: This is a debate that has actually been running for quite a while in Europe.

CAVUTO: Right.

PIERCE: For, as NATO is the cornerstone of the transatlantic alliance and the transatlantic defense, we are very grateful to America.

But, as Britain, we pay our share. We pay over 2 percent, and we think of ourselves as a firm ally.

CAVUTO: Well, apparently, France does not.

And then whatever Macron has said in addition is not sitting well with President Trump.

PIERCE: Well, I can imagine it will be the subject of some quite intense debate. The president has raised this issue before. And we join him in encouraging allies to meet that 2 percent defense spending target.

But I think the more important point, and particularly referring to the point about reconciliation after the First World War, these meetings bring leaders together. They show why Western liberal democracies lead to open, thriving societies.

And I think it's very important that other countries around the world see that, and that we use it to sort out any differences we may have, whether they're on trade, or they're on defense spending. We need to push back against the more aggressive Russia and assertive China.

And I don't think anyone disagrees with the president on those two things.

CAVUTO: Your American counterpart, Nikki Haley, will be leaving by the end of the year as our U.N. ambassador.

Without giving or expressing a bias toward any of the names you might have heard mentioned, is it the type of person that you want to see in that job?

PIERCE: Well, first, I just want to pay tribute to Ambassador Haley, who has been a terrific representative for the American people, but also a very good friend to me.

She's a very gracious, generous, warm person. She's been fantastically effective, particularly on sanctions against DPRK, North Korea.

CAVUTO: Right.

PIERCE: She's got some of the toughest sanctions the Security Council has ever seen. And, basically, this is a Security Council lining up behind American policy, behind the president, showing what it can do when it's united.

So, and Nikki Haley, if you like, has brought out the best of the Security Council.

We will work with any counterpart the president chooses to send to the United Nations to replace Ambassador Haley. But, obviously, I would hope that she would be followed by a successor just as effective.

CAVUTO: A woman?

PIERCE: It's always nice to have another woman.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: All right, Ambassador, thank you very, very much.

Again, big changes going on at the United Nations. We are going to be taking up a lot of these issues well after this weekend, ahead of the G20 and some of the issues with Iran and elsewhere. We're going to be exploring that later in the broadcast, certainly tomorrow, when we're live yet again.

In the meantime, taking a look at what the president now has set the stage for, what was supposed to be a sort of a century look back, but already a brewing battle with the president of France, with whom he has a very big disagreement, particularly when it comes to defense spending.

We will have more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, well, Nancy Pelosi seems to think it's a given she will be the next Democratic leader hence the next speaker of the House.

But that is not a guarantee. That's coming from some of those Democrats -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM RYAN (D), OHIO: It's bigger than me. It's bigger than Nancy Pelosi. It's about the long-term agenda. It's about bringing this country back together.

I mean, I hope somebody does. I mean, I think it's important for us to have that competition.

CAVUTO: Have any of them requested you, Congressman Ryan, take her on again, maybe with very different results?

RYAN: You know, we're getting we're getting a lot of phone calls. And a lot of us are talking.

I think it's important. Look, again, as I said, I don't have any intention on doing this at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: At this point.

But, two years ago, when he did challenge Nancy Pelosi for leader of the Democrats in the House, he got 63 votes, which raised a lot of eyebrows, and that might have kind of greased the skids for challenging her all over again, with much better, bigger results.

So we will see.

Chad Pergram on what's at stake.

Chad, what are your thoughts on this?

CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS SENIOR CAPITOL HILL PRODUCER: Well, right now, you can't beat somebody with nobody. And there is no challenger to Nancy Pelosi to be the speaker of the House.

It's clear that she has a majority of her caucus. But here's how the process works. When you're going to be elected speaker of the House, you have to have an outright majority of all of those casting ballots on the floor.

So if you're full population in the House, 435 members, you knew need 218. Here's the problem. There are a number of Democrats, incumbent Democrats, who said they can't support her. There are a number of incoming freshmen Democrats who say they can't support her.

So how does Nancy Pelosi get to 218? Or, Neil, does she need to get to 218? Sometimes, people are absent. Sometimes, members won't get sworn in on the first day. Sometimes, they might even vote present. And so there's some parliamentary ways around this.

And what does Nancy Pelosi do to try to persuade these members to vote yes? Remember, when her dad was the mayor of Baltimore, and she was just a little girl, she was in charge of a favor file to help get him votes on different issues and help reward people who assisted her father.

Here's another little story. In 2008, Walt Minnick was elected in an upset, a Republican from Idaho. It was a district that favored Republicans by 21 points. He intended to vote present on the floor, not vote yes for Pelosi, not vote no for Pelosi, vote for somebody else, vote present.

And he and Pelosi spoke the day of the vote. And she said to him -- and I talked to Walt Minnick today -- she said, that would harm my speakership. And Walt Minnick voted for Nancy Pelosi, and they held that against him. And he thinks that's one of the reasons he lost reelection in 2010.

So, Neil, if you have these freshmen coming in, and they're on the record saying, I can't vote for Nancy Pelosi, and the very first ballot they cast as a freshman member is for Nancy Pelosi, well, the ad writes itself for the Republicans in 2020.

CAVUTO: And for their future as well.

PERGRAM: Absolutely.

CAVUTO: Chad, that's amazing stuff. Thank you very much, my friend.

Have a great weekend.

PERGRAM: You too.

CAVUTO: Chad Pergram.

All right, a lot going on in Florida right now. You might have heard that, well, we're back to 2000. I don't know what the fashions were then, but we're back to 2000.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: I will explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: They're counting ballots again in Florida again. And it's going to go on a long time again. And the lawsuits are starting again.

Deirdre Bolton looking at the numbers again.

DEIRDRE BOLTON, FOX BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Neil.

Leave it to the Sunshine State. We are going to show you what is going on in Broward County. We're just going to pipe this right up, so you can see there.

And, of course, you have at Nelson vs. Scott in the Sunshine State. Two of these high-profile races -- this is the Senate race, obviously, in the state -- look as if they could go to a recount.

So, Broward County, there it is front and center. And you can see the numbers and how close it is there, as we know that Governor Scott's campaign and the Republican candidate for the Florida Senate alleging that there could be rampant fraud and accuse Democrats of trying to steal the election.

Now, Governor Scott's campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee filing these two lawsuits. We know there was breaking news just moments to in Governor Scott's favor, but against Broward County and the other one against the supervisor of elections in Palm Beach County.

So these lawsuits alleging, of course, that the supervisors have not been transparent, either about the collection of the vote or about the vote counts, in violation of Florida law.

Now, right now, Governor Rick Scott, as you can see there, in the lead there, leading Senator Bill Nelson. But, as we know, it is very close. And we do not know, for example, if there will be recounts starting as early as Saturday.

Same kind of situation at risk here as far as this race goes. We know that the AP has called the race for DeSantis. However, this is close, within about 35,000 votes. And, of course, we do know DeSantis ahead the Tennessee (sic) mayor, Andrew Gillum.

So that is the very latest look at what is going on as far as the state of Florida goes.

We also do continue to watch the great state of Arizona as well, close there as well, Neil. Arizona's Rep. Kyrsten Sinema ahead of Martha McSally for the moment, but by a mere 2,000 votes.

So, a lot keep following. The races are not over -- Neil, back to.

CAVUTO: No, they are not, to put it mildly.

Deirdre, thank you very, very much.

So, looking at this Broward County ballot, how could this happen, especially in a state where they wanted to make things simple? It is not very simple.

We will get to show you the ballot and some of the details in just a second.

Paul Lux is the Okaloosa County, Florida, supervisor of elections.

Supervisor, very good to have you.

PAUL LUX, OKALOOSA COUNTY, FLORIDA, SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS: Hey, Neil. How you doing?

CAVUTO: Do we have confusion running rampant here? I mean, a lot of people were telling me, Supervisor, in some of these counties, Broward or Palm Beach, that the ballots went on and on and on.

And, now, I know both parties wrote off on it, so they have only themselves to blame if they're complaining now, but that a lot of people were confused. Is that a fair assessment?

LUX: Well, I mean, any time you have a long list of amendments, and, of course, exacerbated in Broward County by the fact that they have to do ballots in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole, makes their ballots even extra long.

So, of course, any time you have that number of complicated amendments, it really, truly can cause problems in the voting booth, usually -- usually resulting in longer lines at the polls, actually, as people take more time to digest what they're reading in the voting booth.

CAVUTO: Now, I know the governor, sir, has said that he just wanted to be aware of the universe of ballots we're looking at here, that some seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

So it fed suspicions of the part of some Republicans that this was either rigged or ballots were popping up out of thin air. Can you address that?

LUX: Not at this time, Neil, because, of course, I'm not in Broward County. I'm almost the farthest in the state away from Broward County as you can get.

CAVUTO: Right.

LUX: So, I really can't comment on...

CAVUTO: But how could that happen? If something like that, regardless of the -- and I understand there are legalities here, sir.

But in a full statewide recount, wouldn't suspicions or fears like that be addressed anyway, because you would be recounting everything?

LUX: Well, and, of course, we have all been inundated with public records requests from media and from everywhere else.

And if these ballots are ballots that were issued as part of a request for a mail ballot, we are all getting requests for copies of our database with all of the voters' information and who has asked for ballots and stuff like that, probably just for the reason of cross-checking stuff like this.

CAVUTO: So, do we know whether all -- I'm talking statewide -- all military ballots, all absentee ballots have been counted, or is that part of the ongoing process as well?

For example, that whether it be Palm Beach or Broward or in Dade County and further points in the Panhandle, that they're all being processed now, they're all -- if there is a recount, they all go through the same process?

LUX: Well, so, for example, in my county, we have the largest Air Force base in the world, Army 7th Special Forces Group, Air Force Special Operations Command, Navy EOD School, Coast Guard station. We have all five service branches here.

We have a lot of military ballots. But the deadline for military ballots from people who are not overseas was 7:00 p.m. on election night. That applies to all 67 counties in Florida equally.

But what we are still waiting on and can still tabulate up through the 16th of this month are the ballots that come in from overseas voters, whether they're military or civilian. So there are still ballots to be added into the total across the state from the military folks who live overseas who are sending them in or who sent them in time.

We just give them an extra 10 days to arrive.

So, yes, there are some military votes to count, but the lion's share of the ballots have already been counted in Florida. I was looking at the state Web site a few hours ago, just looking for the check marks in the columns to say which states have reported as complete.

I think Broward is the only one outstanding still, perhaps Palm Beach.

CAVUTO: But back to the military ones that you alluded to, sir, are -- is it possible that they run into the thousands as of yet untabulated ballots?

LUX: Well, I mean, in two days -- so, when we did our provisional ballots last night, my canvassing board here in Okaloosa, we actually process all of the military overseas ballots that we had on hand.

Even with the large number of military voters that I have, that number only came up to 16 for the two days since the election.

CAVUTO: Sixteen what? Sixteen...

LUX: Sixteen ballots that we counted last night from overseas military.

CAVUTO: Is it fair to say there are potentially a lot more than that just have not been tabulated?

LUX: Well, I can tell you, this was a real point of contention.

CAVUTO: Right.

LUX: I worked in the elections office back in 2000, and we had almost 200 military ballots that were being counted on that 10th day after the after the election in 2000.

We had lawyers from all over the place. We had lawsuits about it, because we had 200 ballots nearly in a race that was divided by just 525 votes.

CAVUTO: Right.

LUX: So, of course, everyone was intensely interested then.

Some of the races are that close. The commissioner of agriculture race is pretty tight, if not almost a dead heat. And, of course, the Senate race has slipped from almost barely being recounted to almost hitting the threshold for the manual recount.

You can appreciate, from what Paul was saying here, that it is a Herculean process, and there's no way to know the universe of available ballots to count, just that the back and forth continues, as do the protests.

It's Florida 18 years later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, maybe this is a sign something can happen in Florida as well.

A settlement, we're told, has been announced between Democrats and Republicans over a vote count going on as we speak in the state of Arizona.

The two senatorial candidates there are separated merely by a few hundred votes. And they hope to have the count continue, they have agreed, until Wednesday to go through every single vote and sort out who ultimately won that Senate seat.

The Florida back and forth continues.

Now, I don't know if my next guest, Leif Babin, or his buddy Jocko Willink had sort of choreographed all this discord going out on, on the political front for "The Dichotomy of Leadership," their latest book.

But these two former Navy SEALs certainly have the right environment for all of that.

Leif Babin is with us right now to talk a little bit about these developments.

And, Leif, it's always good to have you.

LEIF BABIN, CO-AUTHOR, "THE DICHOTOMY OF LEADERSHIP: BALANCING THE CHALLENGES OF EXTREME OWNERSHIP TO LEAD AND WIN": Thanks for having me on, Neil.

CAVUTO: You both write in this book about being proactive and to be on top of things.

I'm simplifying it here. It's hard to do that when you don't know how, for example, some key contest are going to sort out. But what do you make of this and some of the lessons we're sort of being forced to relearn again after the 2000 recount and all that?

BABIN: I think there's always leadership lessons to be learned from our politics here in America. And this book "Dichotomy of Leadership" that we wrote about finding the balance for leaders, I think that's a -- I think that's an incredibly important thing to do.

You can go too far in any direction. You have got to be a leader. You have got to step up and be decisive, but you also have to be a follower. You have to be able to follow and get in mind, and when someone else comes up with a good idea, jump on board with that plan.

I think there's a lot of politicians out there that need to stop putting themselves and their media campaigns first and start putting the mission first and what's best for the country long term.

CAVUTO: Again, I'm applying current events this week to your fine book, but I'm thinking where you have to sort of seize and react to events over which you can have little control.

The midterm elections offered something for everybody, something for the Democrats to heart in, retaking the House, something for the president to take heart in, maybe beefing up Republicans in the Senate.

But both have to work with each other now. Easier said than done, right?

BABIN: Easier -- it is much easier said than done, certainly.

And with the heated rhetoric, that makes it extremely difficult. I think it's time to tamp down that heated rhetoric and people get back to work and start trying to make some things happen here.

There's a lot that I think Democrats and Republicans can align on. And I think they need to start small. And once they see that it's not going to - - it's not going to be a killer to make some things happen, whether it's -- whether it's infrastructure, or what have you, to try to start with something that they can find some common ground on.

And once you can build some trust on the small things, that translates to trust in the bigger things.

CAVUTO: You talked about how aggressive means just being proactive. It doesn't mean -- quoting here -- that leaders can get angry or lose their temper, be aggressive toward their people.

But it also doesn't mean being reckless. Do you think President Trump risks getting reckless sometimes?

BABIN: Well, that's a tough dichotomy for leaders.

I mean, you have to be aggressive, you have to be decisive, you have to make things happen. And it's never about being aggressive toward people. It's always about being proactive to accomplish the mission.

But you can't be -- you can't be too aggressive. You have got to mitigate risk where you can control. And I think, for President Trump, often, with so many leaders that we work with through our leadership consulting company, Echelon Front, we see that leaders, oftentimes, their greatest strength is often their greatest weakness.

And I think, for President Trump, he's aggressive. He attacks those that attack him, and he punches back. And I think a lot of his supporters certainly appreciate that about him, which can be a great thing.

On the other hand, you can take that too far in the other direction, and it can be too aggressive as well. When you're giving a platform to people that probably wouldn't have the platform, when you're punching back when it's probably unnecessarily, I think that's -- that's something that he needs to find some balance in.

CAVUTO: But it's hard for someone to change their stripes, though, right, especially in his case? It's worked for him, right?

BABIN: Well, it has certainly worked for core supporters, absolutely.

And I appreciate that about President Trump, that he tells it like it is. I think a lot of people do.

However, when it starts alienating a position when you're trying to negotiate with folks, you got to do a better job of that. And I think he actually has shown some strength there.

I mean, I look at the Kim Jong-un situation with North Korea, where there was some extremely heated rhetoric, and then all of a sudden, when we were able to sit across the table, and President Trump sat down with him, you have seen that he's tamped that rhetoric down.

And so I think he has shown some -- some ability to do that. And, hopefully, he will do that now to be able to work with Democrats.

CAVUTO: All right, "The Dichotomy of Leadership" is the book, Leif Babin, the co-author, along with his former Navy SEAL buddy Jocko Willink .

They do make you think, whatever your perspective, to just keep the focus on getting the job done.

Leif, thank you very, very much. Good seeing you.

BABIN: Thanks for having me, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right.

We will have more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, I forgot to mention Georgia.

Right now, that battle is too close to be resolved right now.

Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who wants to be the first African-American woman to govern a state -- forget about just a Southern state, any state -- and Brian Kemp, the Republican, who appeared to have the lead and this all locked up, but, again, the closer his vote dips potentially below 50 percent, the more likely a run-off election and a close battle there.

Doug Collins is a Republican congressman from that beautiful state of Georgia.

Congressman, boy, it's a mess. There's...

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Where's this going?

REP. DOUG COLLINS (R), GEORGIA: Well, it's really sad, Neil.

And, look, I'm also going to say, here in Georgia, I think you're going to find Brian Kemp is our next governor. Stacey's having a problem with math. We will get to that here in the next little bit. But the math is going to show up. Brian's going to be our next governor.

And I don't believe there's actually going to be a run-off. There's just not enough votes out there for that.

But I don't know what you make of Broward County. At some point in time, somebody has just got to keep calling, this is crazy. We keep going back to the same place all the time with the same kind of problems. At some point, somebody's got to call foul and say, this has got to get better.

CAVUTO: All right.

Now, part of the foul, the Republican charges, I believe, Governor Scott has said this, and now Marco Rubio. This is an allegation -- we don't have proof of this -- that some new ballots replacing damaged ones in the state, particularly Palm Beach County, that would be a no-no.

But we have gotten obviously no confirmation of that. But having said that, that the process is in question. A recount wouldn't address that. Maybe in Georgia, a recount wouldn't address that. A new run-off election, if Mr. Kemp gets under 50 percent, would possibly address that.

But what do you think of all of these tight-margin races? And in your state, in Arizona, in the Senate battle there, in Florida, in both the Senate and the gubernatorial battle, what's going on?

COLLINS: I think it reflects -- I think it reflects something.

Your previous guest also wrote another book called "Extreme Ownership."

CAVUTO: Right.

COLLINS: And I think one of the problems that the Democrats won't do is, they won't take extreme ownership of the fact they lost November 2016.

The president is the president. And everything revolves around what they believe he or you should not be doing.

And so what we have had was, we had an election in cycles like Georgia in the urban areas, suburban areas. I traveled the country during this election cycle extensively. And what we're seeing is the excitement levels built up.

But we also saw a lot of rhetoric that was going on that excited the Republican base, but also excited the Democratic base. So I think you're seeing a more -- a very partisan electorate right now. You're seeing very fewer independents.

And I think it makes these boxes where it seems to be process problems even more problematic. But I think we have seen the election now. We have understood that we're going back in the minority.

I'm looking forward next week to getting our process together, supporting, I think, Kevin McCarthy, who is going to be a great minority leader for us...

CAVUTO: All right.

COLLINS: ... and Steve Scalise, as we look forward, because I think what we have got to do is now is, we have got to prepare into the message for 2020 that the president, you look -- the last two years have been good for America.

We have got to make sure that that message comes on in the next two years as well, so that we can come back in 2020 and make this a different election.

CAVUTO: All right.

And, by then, we will know the results in Georgia and Arizona and Florida and anywhere else.

(LAUGHTER)

COLLINS: We will hopefully do that pretty soon.

CAVUTO: All right, Congressman, thank you very, very much.

Good thing we are live tomorrow. And we are. We will be talking to the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, on the president's trip to Paris.

Much more on all these races as well.

"The Five" is now.

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